Dispenser with cup supporting bristles

ABSTRACT

THE SPECIFICATION DISCLOSES A CYLINDRICAL DISPENSER FOR PAPER OR PLASTIC CUPS HAVING A TAPERED OPEN END THROUGH WHICH THE CUPS ARE PUT INTO OR TAKEN OUT OF THE DISPENSER. AT THE LOWER OPEN END, BRISTLES PROJECT TOWARD THE AXIS OF THE CYLINDER FOR SUPPORTING A STACK OF NESTED CUPS. THE BRISTLES ARE OF PROGRESSIVELY SHORTER LENGTH AND THEREFORE STIFFER TOWARD THE OPEN END WHEREBY THE LOWER STIFFER BRISTLES PROVIDE GOOD SUPPORT FOR THE STACK WHILE THE LONGER, LESS STIFF BRISTLES ASSIST IN SEPARATING THE NESTED CUPS TO FACILITATE REMOVING ONLY ONE AT A TIME.

Feb; 22, 1972 w JOHNSON ETAL RC, 27,29 7

DISPENSER WITH CUP SUPPORTING BRISTLILS Original Filed March 4, 1966INVENTOR-S HOWARD m JOHNSON,

United States Patent ice Reissue, Eff- 27 12.:

' DISPENSER WITH CUP SUPPORTING BRISTLES Howard W. Johnson and GiacintoC. DErcoli, Park Forest, and Elmer J. Knize, Chicago, Ill., assignors toSolo Cup Company, Chicago, Ill.

Original No. 3,342,375, dated Sept. 19, 1967, Ser. No. 531,842, Mar. 4,1966. Application for reissue June 16, 1969, Ser. No. 835,905

(Filed under Rule 47 (a) and 35 U.S.C. 116) Int. Cl. A47f N04 US. Cl.221-308 Claims Matter enclosed in heavy brackets [II appears in theoriginal patent but forms no part of this reissue specification; matterprinted in italics indicates the additions made by reissue.

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The specification discloses a cylindricaldispenser for paper or plastic cups having a tapered open end throughwhich the cups are put into or taken out of the dispenser. At the loweropen end, bristles project toward the axis of the cylinder forsupporting a stack of nested cups. The bristles are of progressivelyshorter length and therefore stiffer toward the open end whereby thelower stiffer bristles provide good support for the stack while thelonger, less stifl' bristles assist in separating the nested cups tofacilitate removing only one at a time.

This invention relates to a dispenser for stacked container articlessuch as paper or plastic disposable cups.

Disposable cups, whether of paper or molded plastic, are either conicalor frusto-conical in shape. Many of them are formed with a head orrolled rim at the open end of the cup. This bead or rolled rim isprovided to give a better drinking lip or rim than that of a cup havinga raw or unrolled rim. It is also provided to strengthen the mouth ofthe cup and to assist in maintaining the circular shape of the open endthereof.

Most of the cup dispensers in use today have a tendency to distort themouth of the cup during withdrawal. Those having spring-loaded knobs orshoulders tend to pinch the mouth of the cup out of round. Those havingknobs or shoulders which do not yield at all during withdrawal, distortthe mouth of the cup even more.

It is, therefore, the first object of this invention, to provide adispenser for cups in which the cup retainer means does. not distort themouth of the cup during withdrawal, while having a sufficient grippingor retaining action to hold the cups in position, in a vertical stack,in an open bottomed dispenser. Another object of the invention is toprovide a dispenser in the form of a cylindrical housing suitablysupported on a wall or the like, having a closed upper end and an openlower end into which the stack of articles may be inserted, means beingprovided to retain the stack of articles in the housing and permit themto be withdrawnsfrom said open lower end one at a time withoutdistortion of the articles.

Another object is to provide the retaining means in the form of flexiblebristles extending from the inner wall of-the housing toward the stackof articles, the inner ends of the bristles defining a cylinder ofslightly less internal diameter than the external diameter of the rimsof the articles whereby some bristles project between the rims ofadjacent cups and others engage the rims, thereby serving to supportseveral of the lowermost articles and to separate them gradually asarticles are removed one at a time from the lower end of the stack, theflexibilityof the bristles permitting ready removal yet resistingtheforce of gravity acting on the stack of articles to retain them with theexception of the lowermost article when it is grasped'and withdrawn fromthe cylindrical housing.

A further object is to provide retainer means formed of resilientbristles so that they are of substantial character such as to withstandwear and are therefore longlasting.

Still a further object is to provide a band within the cylindricalhousing for supporting the bristles in proper position for performingtheir intended functions.

An additional object is to provide a comparatively sim ple structurefrom the standpoint of formed parts and assembly during manufacture inwhich a flexible strip is provided to form the band above referred toand has the bristles integrally formed therewith of plastic material.

Another additional object is to provide the strip of such curvature thatwhen the two ends of the strip are joined it assumes the shape of aninverted truncated cone, whereby the bristles formed thereon may beprogressively shorter toward the lower edge of the band so that thecylinder defined by the inner ends of the bristles is substantially thesame diameter throughout, and the bristles progressively stiffer towardthe lower end of the housing, thereby producing a superior retainingfunction for the articles and an efiicient means to progressivelyseparate several of the lowermost articles as they are worked downwardlyin the dispenser by successive withdrawals of single articles from thelower end of the stack.

With these and other objects in view, our invention consists in theconstruction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of ourdispenser, whereby the objects above contemplated are attained, ashereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in our claims andillustrated in detail on the accompanying drawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a dispenser embodying our invention, theupper and lower portions thereof being broken away and sectioned to showa stack of containers retained in the dispenser for withdrawaltherefrom;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion of FIG. 1 showing someof the retainer bristles and the action thereof on the articles ingreater detail; and

FIG. 3 is a layout view of a combined supporting strip and bristlemember forming part of our invention.

On the accompanying drawing we have used the reference character H toindicate in general a cylindrical housing and A to indicate a containersuch as a paper or plastic cup. The housing H comprises an uppercylinder 10 and a lower cylinder 12 which may be molded of plasticmaterial such as polyethylene or polypropylene and may be connectedtogether by an internal connecting band 14 also of plastic material, thethree parts being cemented together at the point where the bottom ofcylinder 10 abuts the top of the cylinder 12.

the inner wall of the housing toward the stack of cups with the'innerends of the bristles defining a cylinder of slightly less internaldiameter than the external diameter of the rims 18 as illustrated inFIG. 2. Preferably, these bristles are also formed of plastic materialsuch as polyethylene or polypropylene and we have found a convenientmanner of supporting them by means of a bandlike supporting strip 20.The band itself may be in the form of a curved strip, such as shown inFIG. 3 of plastic material and the bristles '22 may be integrally formedtherewith, by'molding techniques well known in the art. Due to thecurvature of the stri'p'20 as shown in FIG. 3, when it is formed into aband and assembled in the housing H the band is shaped like a truncatedcone.

To retain the band in position the lower cylinder 12 may have an annularrecess or peripheral seat 24 formed therein and the connecting band 14may have an annular recess 26 formed therein so that the lower edgethereof is spaced from the inner surface of the lower cylinder. Also asshown in FIG. 3, the bristles 22 need not extend all the way around theband but can be provided in groups.

The action of the bristles with respect to the cup rims is illustratedin detail in FIG. 2. After a stack of cups A has been inserted upwardlyinto the dispenser through the open lower end 34 thereof, as shown inFIG. 1, the bristles 22 will resiliently engage the rims 18, asillustrated, to retain the stack in position. The lowermost cup can beremoved by grasping it and pulling it downwardly. As it is pulleddownwardly its rim 18 will riflle the bristles 22 and the removaloperation will act to separate the lowermost cups. The resilientbristles will snap into the space between the rims as shown in FIG. 2 toprogressively separate the few lowermost cups for subsequent readyremoval of the lowermost cup.

Since the bristles project slightly under the rims 18 and there are agreat number of them, a considerable pro portion of which are curveddownwardly by the rims, their tendency to return to their original shapeprovides suflicient support for the stack of cups, yet permitscomparatively easy removal of the lowermost cup regardless of whetherthe stack of cups is a full stack or only a few. We have found thatresilient bristles of plastic material coacting with the cup rims asdisclosed provides a very efficient retaining means for the stack ofcups, yet permits individual removal of the cups without distorting themas in many types of dispensers having solid projections engaging underthe cup rims.

From the foregoing specification it will be obvious that we haveprovided a simple and efiicient retaining means for cups or the like ina dispenser which accomplishes the objects contemplated. Some changesmay be made in the construction and arrangement of the parts of ourdispenser without departing from the real spirit and purpose of ourinvention and it is our intention to cover by our claims any modifiedforms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may reasonablybe included within their scope.

We claim as our invention:

1. A dispenser for removing cups one at a time from a nested stack, saidcups having a rim at the topedge thereof, comprising an upper cylinder,21 lower cylinder aligned with saidupper cylinder and having its topedge adjacent the bottom edge of said upper cylinder, band meansdisposed within said cylinders at said adjacent edges for securing saidcylinders together, the lower edge of the hand being spaced from theinner surface of said lower A 4 stiff to support said stack of cups byengaging the rims of several of the lowermost cups in said stack andsufficiently resilient to snap into the space between the rims ofadjacent nested cups to separate them when the bristles are riffied byremoving the bottom cup from said stack.

2. A dispenser in accordance with claim 1 wherein said bristles areintegrally formed with said strip from plastic material.

3. A dispenser in accordance with claim 1 wherein said bristles areformed in groups spaced along said strip.

4. A dispenser for cups disposed thereinin a nested stack, said cupshaving a rim at the .top edge thereof, comprising a cylinder having alower openend and being tapered toward said open end, supporting meansfor said stack comprising a strip of resilient plastic materialhavingbristles molded integrally therewith, said strip being 'secured to theinner surface of said cylinder near said open end with the bristlesextending radially inwardly, said bristles being progressively shortertoward the open end to compensate for the taper of the cylinder and todefine at the inner ends thereof a cylinder of uniform diameter slightlysmaller than the diameter of the cups atthe rim, said bristles beingstiffer at the. lower edge than at the top edge of said strip because oftheir shortened length, thereby providing increasing resistance todownawrd force imposed on the cups to support the stack and to cause thecups to become separated as they advance past the bristles by the actionof the bristles against the rims of the cups. 1

5. A dispenser in accordance with claim 4 where said strip in its flatcondition is curved to provide a truncated cone-shaped band having itssmaller end directed toward said open end. v

6. A dispenser for removingcups one ata time from a nested stack, saidcups having a rim at the top edge thereof, comprising ahousing having anupper portion, a lower portion aligned with said upper portion andhaving its top edge adjacent the bottom edge of said upper portion, bandmeans disposed within said portions at said adjacent edges for securingsaid portions together, the lower edge of the band being spaced from theinner surface of said lower portion, said lower portion terminating atits lower end in a peripheral seat, a bristle-supporting strip havingresilient bristles projecting therefrom, said strip being disposedwithin said lower portion with .the bristles extending radiallyinwardly, the :lower .edge of the strip being seated in said peripheralseat and the upper edge of said strip being interposed in saidspace,thereby securing said strip to said lower portion, said brisllesbeingsufficiently stiff to support said stack 0 cups by engaging the rims ofseveral of the lowermost cups in said stack and sufliciently resilientto snap into the space between the rims of adjacent nested cups toseparate them when the bristles are rifiled by removing the bottom cupfrom said stack.

7. A dispenser in accordance with claim 6 wherein said bristles areintegrally formed with said strip from plastic material. v

8. A dispenser in accordance with claim 6 wherein said bristles arcformed in groups spaced along said strip.

9. A dispenser for cups disposed therein in a nested stack, said cupshaving a rim at the top edge thereof, comprising a housing having alower open end, supporting means for said slack comprising a strip ofresilient plastic material having bristles molded integrally therewith,said strip being secured to the inner surface of said housing near saidopen end with the bristles extending radially inwardly, said bristlesbeing progressively shorter. toward the open end and defining at theinner ends thereof a cylinder of uniform diameter slightly smaller thanthe diameter of the cups at the rim, said bristles being slifier at thelower edge than at the top edge of said strip because of their shortenedlength, thereby providingincreasing resistance to downward force imposedon'the cupsjo support the stack and to cause the cups to becomeseparated as they advance past the bristles by the action of thebristles against the rims of the cups. 514 772 10. A dispenser inaccordance with claim 9 wherein said 1,975,649 strip in its flatcondition is curved to provide a truncated 2,543,746 cone-shaped bandhaving its smaller end directed toward 5 2,584,941 said open end.2,614,687

References Cited The following references, cited by the Examiner, are193 139 of record in the patented file of this patent or the original 10patent.

6 UNITED STATES PATENTS Siegel 221-308 X Reif snyder 221308 Morrison221-307 Taubert 22163 Roy 221-308 Bennett 22163 Reiner 221307 X Iannoneet al 221-308 X STANLEY TOLL/BERG, Primary Examiner

